SUSTAINABILITY | COMPOUND INNOVATION
Right: SABIC and Scientex developed a BOPP packag- ing material based on chemically recycled ocean-bound plastics using mass balance accounting
Right: SABIC has developed a 30% recycled content HDPE for blow moulded applications
RX CP-15100 series TPEs are available in standard grades from 55-80 Shore A. They can also be tailored for specific requirements. The CP-15100 products are designed for injection moulding applications, including over- moulding onto PP, and are said to offer perfor- mance on a par with prime TPEs. Target applica- tions include personal care products, lawn and garden tools, writing instruments, appliances, sporting goods and protective packaging. As part of a project with furniture maker GSM Sella and processor Aurora Kunststoffe, Austria’s Gabriel-Chemie Group, has devel- oped a new masterbatch for use in production of stadium seats using post-industrial recycled PA66. The company says when added to post-industrial polymer the masterbatch guarantees me- chanical resistance and flame- retardant properties are achieved. It also offers a good aesthetic appearance and resistance to prolonged expo- sure to UV rays and other aggressive atmospheric agents. Some 30,000 new stadium seats have already been produced using the new grade.
As part of its Trucircle initiative, SABIC recently
introduced a new HDPE for blow moulding of motor oils that is custom formulated using 30% mechanically recycled PCR content. It is part of a project to move to a full closed-loop bottle-to- bottle scheme in the Saudi Arabian automotive aftermarket. The HDPE T3K01B grade has been tested at SABIC’s Plastics Application Development Center (SPDAC) in Riyadh and has been shown to provide the same batch-to-batch consistency, process ability and in-use properties as the company’s equivalent virgin HDPE blow-moulding grade. Reliable bottle performance has been confirmed in comprehensive practical trials, including standard drop impact, top load and dimensional stability tests. According to SABIC’s internal life cycle assessment, the compound offers a carbon footprint reduction of around 20% compared to a 100% virgin alternative.
Matters of balance Tracking use of mechanically recycled material is straightforward but it is not so easy when dealing with the products of chemical recycling, where the recycled content takes the form of basic hydrocar- bons fed into complex cracking and polymerisation
52 COMPOUNDING WORLD | February 2023
processes. In such situations, inputs are accounted for using the principles of mass balance — the input of indi- vidual components is measured and its contribution to a unit of end product allocated. In the case of chemical recycling, the mass balance system should ensure that the amount of recycled feedstock entering a production plant equates to claims made about recycled content of products leaving it. The concept is explained in more detail HERE in AMI’s Chemical
Recycling Global Insight 2023 special publication. The principle is being applied by many major players in the polymer industry. SABIC, for example, worked with Scientex in development of flexible food packaging made using SABIC-certified chemically recycled PP sourced from ocean-bound plastics (defined as plastics waste collected from within 50km of the ocean that could otherwise have found its way to the sea). The polymer is being used in a premium brand of noodle packaging sold in Malaysia.
In this case the waste is recovered and convert-
ed to pyrolysis oil by chemical recycling, which SABIC uses as a feedstock to produce PP polymer for processing to BOPP film. Scientex then manu- factures and prints the noodle packs from this film. The entire chain from management of the collect- ed ocean-bound plastic to the final package is accredited under certification regimes and a mass balance ocean-bound content of 30% claimed. In Europe, Rehau has selected a Bornewables PP
grade from Borealis over conventional PP for production of its Raukantex Evo Sustainable edgebands, which are used to trim furniture panels. Bornewable PPs are produced using a renewable feedstock derived solely from waste and residue streams within the ISCC mass-balance feedstock accounting system. As such, they are a
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IMAGE: SABIC
IMAGE: SABIC
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